If you don't want to spend too much on a large and heavy album I suggest to choose a Press Book as an album alternative.

Here some reasons considered by the Lab I work with to choose a Press Book:

LESS MEANS MORE

A major distinction between albums and press books are the pages—album pages are thick, rigid, and quite heavy. The ripple effect is that albums can be cumbersome and take up more space than press printed photo books without being able to hold the same amount of images per cubic inch.

TIDY UP

Albums are assembled by attaching photographic prints (made with light sensitive paper) to the pages, so there is a bit of clutter that’s just... inherent to the medium. Press printing rocks because it allows for double-sided, direct-to-page ink printing, keeping things sleek and modern for a pro-quality collection of images.

GOING PRO

...Even if you're just looking for a photo display to be distinctly your own, there’s something #nextlevel and contemporary about the look and feel of a press book.